Giving American home educators a taste of what’s to come if the U.S. government continues down the path of European-style socialism, Utah Judge Scott Johansen recently ordered, per a bureaucratic paperwork glitch, the removal of a homeschool mother’s children if she refused to enroll them in public school.
As if that were not bizarre enough, the mother, Denise Mafi, was threatened with two years jail time if her children failed to show up for class without a physician’s note excusing them.
Since when did a learning method used to educate some of the greatest heroes in American history become illegal? And yet more of this kind of judicial despotism is in store if America elects candidates next year who move closer to ratifying the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child, a treaty that has essentially banned homeschooling in Germany.
If enacted in America, this treaty would usurp parental authority and threaten our constitutional right to home educate.
Nothing would thrill judges like Johansen more.
Sadly, many homeschool families are already well acquainted with the rank prejudice leveled against their successful efforts. As a result, the Home School Legal Defense Association, or HSLDA, works to maintain educational freedom for those choosing to partake of its benefits, rather than be in bondage to a defunct government school system.
This Christmas season in particular, educrats and their supporters are gleefully jumping on the bigot bandwagon and mouthing remarkably high numbers of anti-homeschooling sentiments.
Take, for example, Judge Johansen’s attorney-confirmed statement that he refuses to allow homeschooling because it fails 100 percent of the time. Considering that studies conducted by the National Home Education Research Institute have conclusively shown homeschooling to markedly surpass all other forms of education in academics, social competence and promotion of maturity, Judge Johansen’s statement is downright absurd.
Add to that the arrogance of a judge saying he won’t even allow home education. Who set him up as dictator?
Also on Dec. 12, another homeschool mother, Kristin Maguire, was voted chairwoman-elect of South Carolina’s Board of Education. While some, using their full mental capacities, applauded Maguire as well qualified for the position, “educration” bureaucrats such as Sheila Gallagher, president of the S.C. Education Association, declared the vote “a missed opportunity.”
Since the National Education Association and its affiliates work hard to implant homosexual activists into positions of influence, amply demonstrated in public schools across the country, it is understandable that Gallagher would regard Maguire’s move as tragic.
Another intolerant response, offered by 2007 South Carolina Chamber of Commerce businessman of the year Lee Bussell, opined that Maguire’s management would be “like having a CEO of an airline who has no experience flying.” He added, “I don’t think (homeschoolers) ought to be put in a leadership position in something as important as public education. … The one place we don’t need partisan politics in our school.”
Did this leftist say partisan politics? Evidently, he can’t see his foot for his nose.
To round off the smear job, Democratic Party Chairwoman Carol Fowler added that “having Kristin Maguire chair the State Board of Education is akin to Dick Cheney teaching a gun safety course.” She asked, “What does a woman who homeschools her four children know about South Carolina public schools?”
The answer is that she knows enough to have taken her own children out of the system. And across the country, the numbers of children exiting are increasing markedly at 15 percent per year, with even greater rates in some locales.
The good news is that, while the grinches continue foaming at the mouth over the homeschool freedom revolution, and as educrats work in tandem with pro-homosexual forces to indoctrinate children in depravity and outright academic ignorance through textbook alterations, more and more parents are waking up to the realities of government school corruption.
And freedom-loving parents who understand their rights can take heart in knowing educrats are beginning to get worried.
Recently, a California bill forcing public school children to be spoon-fed homosexual dogma resulted in a large enough school exodus to concern state Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell. Warning districts could lose money, he sent a notice to all county and district superintendents urging, “We must encourage students to stay in school and resist calls for a protest and walkout over S.B. 777.”
Continuing his lament, O’Connell stated, “What I find most troubling is that possible student absences may lead to missed opportunities for them to learn and that this lost time may not be recaptured.”
Indeed, time spent indoctrinating young children in smut and socialist propaganda would be lost.
O’Connell continued saying, “Additionally, there may be fiscal consequences to school districts for funds lost to student absences.”
That, Mr. O’Connell, is exactly what needs to happen for school choice to become reality across our nation. The government school system is destined for collapse, with education to be placed under the subordination of parents, where it rightfully belongs.
And for the sake of our children, it cannot happen too soon.
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Olivia St. John is a freelance writer with almost 20 years of experience as a home educator. Her work has been featured in several online publications, and she is currently working on a book promoting home education.
